Savannah Guthrie missed her second straight day on NBC's "Today" show this week, stepping aside for a brief family hiatus while the FBI and Pima County investigators still have no suspect in custody for the abduction of her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, from her Arizona home more than five months ago.
Fill-in anchors Sheinelle Jones and Laura Jarrett covered for Guthrie on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, joining co-anchor Craig Melvin on set. Page Six confirmed the hiatus, reporting that the 54-year-old journalist is spending time with family as the investigation grinds on without resolution.
The case has consumed national attention since February 1, when Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her home outside Tucson. Authorities believe a masked man, described as approximately 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 10 with an average build, took her. No arrest has followed. No suspect has been publicly identified. And Nancy Guthrie has not been found.
The FBI has acknowledged receiving "several ransom notes" over the course of the investigation, with demands totaling millions of dollars in bitcoin for Nancy Guthrie's safe return. But the bureau drew a sharp line between the credible and the fraudulent in a statement on the case:
"The FBI and its task force partners have received several ransom notes over the course of this investigation. Some have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy."
The FBI added that "other ransom demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such," and that the case "continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case."
One of those ransom notes, sent in February, reportedly claimed Nancy Guthrie had already died. A second note, reported by the Washington Examiner, was believed to be legitimate and sent from the same IP address as a prior valid ransom note. It stated she had died accidentally shortly after her abduction and was "buried with nature now." CNN and a Tucson television station were reportedly aware of the death-related note but withheld it at law enforcement's request.
The ransom note saga took an even darker turn when a California man pleaded guilty to felony harassment charges for sending fake ransom notes while impersonating a kidnapper. Breitbart reported the Los Angeles-area man posed as Nancy Guthrie's captor, one more cruel exploitation layered on top of a family's ordeal.
In June, Savannah Guthrie broke down in tears on air while discussing yet another ransom letter, this one from a person claiming to have video of Nancy Guthrie with a kidnapper.
Savannah Guthrie returned to the "Today" show in April, roughly two months after her mother vanished. A Page Six source described the atmosphere inside the show at the time:
"It was supposed to be business as usual. [Producers] said to act totally normal. 'Move forward' is the vibe. It's been a hard year and a draining time."
But "moving forward" has proved impossible. Speaking to KOLD 13 News last week, Guthrie reflected on what she called a five-month ordeal and made clear the family has not stopped searching.
"There is not a moment that goes by that we aren't actively trying to find our mom."
She thanked the Tucson community "for holding her in their hearts" and praised both the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department "for their tireless work." She has also described the "agony and unending trauma" she and her loved ones continue to endure.
Earlier in the investigation, Guthrie made an emotional Instagram plea and announced a $1 million family reward for information leading to her mother's recovery. As Newsmax reported, the family also donated $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In that plea, Guthrie acknowledged the worst possibility head-on: "She may be lost, she may already be gone... But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home."
That reward remains unclaimed.
The lack of progress has not gone unnoticed in Pima County. The investigation has crossed the 100-day mark with no public suspects and no arrests, and the pressure is landing squarely on Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.
Nanos has defended the pace of his department's work, pointing to lab backlogs, DNA testing protocols, and judicial process requirements. Fox News reported that hair samples from Nancy Guthrie's home were sent to a private genetics lab in Florida before being forwarded to the FBI's Quantico lab for more advanced testing, eleven weeks later. The FBI is reportedly exploring new technological tools focused on digital forensics.
"It's just not a detective goes out there, talks to somebody, and we can make an arrest," Nanos told Fox News. "This is a very sensitive case, but what really makes it prolonged is we do rely on labs."
That explanation has not satisfied critics. Just The News reported that Republican congressional candidate Daniel Butierez launched a formal recall effort against Nanos, citing broad dissatisfaction with his leadership on the case. Butierez needs approximately 120,000 signatures within 120 days to trigger a recall election or force Nanos to step down. He told Just The News he already has nearly 500 volunteers and five notaries enlisted.
"He has been an embarrassment to Tucson and to Pima County with this Nancy Guthrie case," Butierez said. "Everyone's pretty disgusted, Democrats and Republicans."
The frustration is not limited to outside activists. The Pima County Sheriff's Department itself issued a unanimous vote of no confidence against Nanos, a remarkable rebuke from the very officers working the case. Butierez emphasized the bipartisan nature of the recall: "It's not like we're trying to get signatures from one party or the other."
Meanwhile, the FBI has stated that while it continues to "offer all assistance possible," local authorities remain the lead on the investigation. That arrangement leaves Nanos, and his department's credibility, at the center of the case.
Five months in, the list of unanswered questions dwarfs the list of confirmed facts. No suspect has been named. No arrest has been made. Nancy Guthrie has not been located, alive or dead. The FBI has sorted ransom notes into piles of fraudulent and "potentially legitimate," but the public accounting remains vague.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the case, stating: "I am directing ALL Federal Law Enforcement to be at the family's, and Local Law Enforcement's, complete disposal, IMMEDIATELY." The FBI has described its role as supportive, deferring to Pima County's lead.
The FBI's evolving assessment of the ransom notes has itself become a subplot. Reports emerged that none of the notes were believed to be genuine, even as the bureau's own public statement left the door open on some demands being "potentially legitimate." That tension between official caution and investigative reality has fueled public frustration.
Morgan Wright, CEO of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, told Fox News he believes the breakthrough, if it comes, will be technical: "The solution to this case is going to be, I think, something technical, something that they come up with, new ways of analyzing data."
For now, Savannah Guthrie is home with her family. The "Today" show carries on with fill-in anchors. And an 84-year-old woman taken from her Arizona home on a winter night remains missing, with the people charged with finding her facing a mounting credibility crisis of their own.
When a sheriff's own deputies vote unanimously that they have no confidence in him, and the public reward for answers sits untouched at a million dollars, the system isn't working. Somebody in Tucson knows something. The question is whether the people running this investigation can find them before the trail goes cold for good.
